Staff photo by Cindy Hepner/South Jersey TimesThe Old Ferry Tavern stands in front of the site of the first jail in Cumberland County and will be featured on the Greenwich Ghost Walk Tour on Oct. 19, 20 and 26.

GREENWICH TWP. — Giving a preview of the upcoming Greenwich
Ghost Walk Tour, resident and tour guide Gregg Jones offered a glimpse into the
town's gripping, spooky history on Tuesday.

The walking
tour will be held at 7 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 19; Saturday,
Oct. 20, and Friday, Oct. 26, and the sites along the way are sure to get
visitors in the mood for Halloween — though in a town founded in 1675, hauntings
are far from limited to the ghoulish holiday.

"Some of
this is documented, some it is not, but in most houses down here you hear
things," Jones said. "We want to let the creepiness of walking through town at
night come out. To creep you out with the atmosphere here — that's our
goal."

After
meeting up at the Leonard Gibbon Homestead, reported to be haunted by lovers
whose last quarrel ended in murder, Jones led The News down Ye Greate Street on Tuesday. Along this quiet path,
Jones highlighted a number of buildings from the 18th and 19th
centuries where residents and visitors have experienced sightings, sounds,
smells and sensations that have made at least one woman flee her home in fear.

Jones
pointed out the Richard Wood Mansion, located next to the first Wawa, as a historic
site where Wood's brother is believed to wander the halls at night. A portrait of
George Bacon Wood was found upstairs at the home and unleashed the sound of
footsteps among other eerie occurrences once it was displayed, as if hanging
the portrait in the home "released him," Jones said.

Next door,
the Pumpkin House is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Amy, a young girl
who died there in 1840.

"People
have reported childish tricks like items being moved about at night, but one
family bought some toys and dolls and put them in the attic; after that, they didn't
hear anything," Jones said.

Jones shared
a family account at the Francis Wood House, the residence of a Dr. Schneider in
the late 1800s and also Jones' childhood home. While Jones' mother, Dorothy,
was home alone one night, a chimney fire broke out, endangering the sleeping woman.

"My mom says
a woman shook her and said, 'Pauline, get up,'" he said. "My mother's birth
name is Pauline, but she was born in western Pennsylvania and is known locally
by everyone as Dorothy or Dot. She just couldn't explain it."

At Jones'
parents' current home, the Charles Beatty Fithian House, built in 1800, Jones
had his own mysterious encounter in 1989. He was upstairs painting one October
evening when he heard a vibrating noise emanating down the hallway leading up
to one of the home's two attics.

"I looked
around, and there was a door with an original hinge latch hardware that was
vibrating. I said, 'OK, let me use logic here. It's a cool night with a breeze —
but the door shake just didn't go with the wind,'" Jones recalled. "I said, 'Quit
it, it's not funny,' and it would stop for a minute then start again. I decided
I was done painting and left right then. The next day I went back and found
nothing."

Jones also
said he and his buddies got spooked one Mischief Night years ago when one of
them spotted a little old lady reading a book in a chair at the Pirate House,
where a young couple lived with no elderly occupants at the time. At the Pirate
House, chains can be heard clanging from time to time and are believed to be
the audible evidence of the ghost of John the Pirate, who was chained up in the
attic and "left to rot" after short-changing his crew at the port of entry,
Jones said.

Walking on
the tour trail behind the Old Ferry Tavern and the site of Cumberland County's
first jail, Jones described "The Greenwich Horror" of the spring of 1778. Capt.
Dan Bowen reported that a platoon of British troops was resting by the Cohansey
River when a "huge, hairy beast" splashed out of the water and pounced on the
sleeping soldiers.

Shooting at
but failing to kill the attacker — speculated by some to have been a
Jersey Devil of sorts — Privates Jason White and George Chandler were
slain by the beast. General "Mad Anthony" Wayne is believed to haunt the same
area riding a phantom white horse, hoping to confront a resident who shot him
many years ago.

Finally,
Jones told a tale from the Thomas Ewing House of 1707, aka Resurrection Hall. Car
keys often would be moved around the house in the night, but the house's most
noteworthy haunting story came from the 1970s, when a mother awoke to her baby
crying in the middle of the night.

"The mother
was warming a bottle for her baby, but then the baby stopped crying. When the
mother went to the baby, it had a warm bottle in its mouth," Jones said. "For
the mother the final straw was when she went back to the kitchen and felt a
cool whisk of air, smelled perfume and heard a lady's voice say, 'Get out of my
house.' She ran out of the house with her baby in her arms and had her husband
come back with a moving van on his own to get their things."

Jones said
spooky characters are sure to be out and about along the tour path on Oct. 19,
20 and 26, but he assured the approximately one-mile-long walks will be family-friendly.
Refreshments will be offered after each tour, and guests are asked to register
in advance at a $5-per-person fee to ensure small groups get entertained appropriately
on their walks.

To more
information or to register for a spot on a Greenwich Ghost Walk Tour, call 856-455-4055
or 856-455-8580.